Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr.

Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr. (1 January 1725-5 February 1786) was a priest from Connecticut who was the head of the local church in Setauket, Long Island at the time of the American Revolution and the father of war hero Benjamin Tallmadge.

Biography
Benjamin Tallmadge, Sr. was born on 1 January 1725 in Connecticut, but he would later move to Setauket on Long Island in New York to become the local preacher. Tallmadge fought in the French and Indian War as a New York militiaman, giving him some military experience. He kept a Pennsylvania rifle and a pistol at his home, and Tallmadge would give fiery sermons that supported the patriots during the American Revolutionary War. In the spring of 1777, he was arrested for these views, as he was suspected in the shooting of Judge Richard Woodhull with a musket. Major Edmund Hewlett had Woodhull's son Abraham Woodhull carry out the prosecution, and Woodhull intentionally sabotaged the trial by showing the audience how to load Tallmadge's gun with the bullet that hit Woodhull. The bullet was made for a British Army musket and not for Tallmadge's Pennsylvania gun, showing his innocence; he gave one last sermon before he was sent to the gallows. John Graves Simcoe wanted to kill Tallmadge before his son's eyes, but the rebels prevented the prisoners from being hanged and negotiated their release, and Tallmadge left Setauket with his son. He died on 5 February 1786, three years after the war's end.